Billionaire Activist Paul Singer Moved Into Q4 With These Five Top Stocks

#3 Citrix Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS)

 – Shares Owned by Elliott Management (as of September 30): 5.87 Million

 – Value of Holding (as of September 30): $406.74 Million

Paul Singer and his team were very bullish on Citrix Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) during the latest quarter, as Elliot Management lifted its position in the multinational software company by a whopping 4.40 million shares. It appears that Paul Singer’s activist campaign on the cloud computing software maker has started to bear fruit. Earlier this week, Citrix Systems announced plans to spin-off its GoTo business into a separate, publicly-traded company, which will allow Citrix to focus on its core software virtualization business. Just recently, the company also announced a workforce reduction of about 1,000 jobs, accounting for at least 10% of its total workforce. Meanwhile, the stock is up by nearly 23% for the year and still has the potential to reach $90-to-$100 per share by the end of 2016, according to the activist investor. Bain Capital’s Brookside Capital Management reported owning 3.02 million shares of Citrix Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) through its latest 13F filing.

#2 EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC)

 – Shares Owned by Elliott Management (as of September 30): 34.00 Million

 – Value of Holding (as of September 30): $821.44 million

EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) gained one spot on the list of Paul Singer’s top stock picks during the latest quarter. The activist hedge fund increased its holding in the services provider of information technology operations by 400,000 shares during the three-month period that ended September 30. Earlier this week, the storage giant announced the introduction of newly-integrated and extended cloud capabilities that will connect more storage systems to both public and private clouds. Hence, it appears that EMC Corporation is well-positioned to benefit from enterprises’ transitioning of data and workloads to the cloud. Meanwhile, the stock is 15% in the red year-to-date, and several valuation metrics suggest that there is more upside for the stock in the upcoming years. John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies holds 9.80 million shares of EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) as of September 30.

#1 Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES)

 – Shares Owned by Elliott Management (as of September 30): 17.80 Million

 – Value of Holding (as of September 30): $891.07 Million

Elliott Management did not make any adjustments to its position in Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES) during the September quarter, holding an equity stake of 17.80 million shares as of September 30. The global exploration and production company has had a rough year in terms of stock performance, with its shares declining by 18% year-to-date. The company’s exposure to commodity risks, which include the volatile prices of crude oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas, as well as its exposure to currency exchange fluctuations, have put significant weight on its operations and financial performance this year. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management lifted its stake in Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES) by 635,500 shares during the latest quarter, ending the three-month period with 1.06 million shares.

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